A Brief Look Inside the S7 Stock

Whilst the eight car S Stock is now a relatively familiar sight on the Metropolitan Line, the S7 variant will not make its public debut until after the Olympics. It will then be rolled out onto the Circle, Hammersmith & City and District Lines.

It is, however, in production at Derby and the photo below gives a good first look at the longitudinal seating layout that they’ll contain.

There are 25 comments on this article

One rather interesting aspect on that shot is the presence of looped “strap hangers”. I thought LUL had abandoned those? I was on a S8 yesterday and took an interior shot and there are just fixed stanchions to hold. I recognise the seat layout is different but I am still surprised to see the strap hangers. I guess the S7 has just copied the Class 378 internal layout as those do have strap hangers.

They could have someone’s eye out!
You are assuming a level of knowledge about the rollout of S7s which I don’t possess. From the keywords I’m guessing they will run on the subsurface lines. Is that right?

They’re for shorties like me, but I prefer to hang on to something solid. The old LT flexing hangs were better, they had some resistance.

Anyway – I’m glad the moquette is the same as on S8, representing the colours of the 4 SS lines, rather than the new design proliferating across tube stock, which would look twee and insubstantial on the SS.

In my younger days I travelled from Hornchurch to Victoria every morning and returned every evening as a commuter would on a journey that takes 55 minutes. I guess the new trains are a bit faster but what agony to do that either standing or a longitudinal seat!!

@T33
H&C and Circle line trains already have only longitudinal seats. District trains are mostly longitudinal, I suppose from Hornchurch you can still get forward-facing seats now but by Dagenham East they have gone (or so I have been told, only experienced once).

I went past Lillie Bridge twice today, and there was definitely a train of S stock parked parallel to the Kensington Olympia branch. I couldn’t count the carriages, but I don’t think S8 stock is allowed to run down there.

I love the NEW S Stock but I feel S7 & S8 should of had different coloured poles as they look pretty much identical.
S8 should have Purple poles
S7 should have Yellow poles.
Also I feel S8 & S7 should of been introduced at the same time so they could both be in service in time for the Olympics.

The S8 should have magenta poles and the S7 for C/H should be yellow and the S7 for the district line should be green. It will be difficult to tell which train comes at the platform because they’ll look identical. Especially Tower hill to Gloucseter road because then the circle and District split

Part of the “point” of having common rolling stock on the SSR is so that they can be used interchangably. It would be crazy if (say) there was a shortage of trains on the H&C and LUL couldn’t borrow some S7’s from another line because their poles were the “wrong” colour for the line.

I really like the noise and as the engine accelarates away like wind .Like the S Stock but why is it not on the Circle Line yet?The C Stock trains are in such a bad condition and TFL said services on the Circle line would start in 2012.Also why replace the D Stock so early.It is not life expired since being built in 1983 and given a very good refurbishment..Last,why did TFL send 31 S8 trains back to Derby.

Anon – Why is it not on the Circle? – because it takes time to build so many units and the A stock was the oldest (and first to be refurbished) so was replaced first. Also some stations on the Circle still need modification to take the longer trains.

When did they say S stock would appear on the Circle in 2012? Anyway, it does – betwen Hammersmith and Aldgate.

By the time the D stock is replaced, it will be 35 years old (introduced in 1980). A standardised surface stock fleet is seen as desirable (it will, for instance, allow a District main line train to be diverted to a destination on the north side of the Circle should the need arise (e.g to Edgware Road instead of Tower Hill) which is not possible at present. Moreover, the D stock suffers from the same design flaw that put paid to the short-lived 1983 Tube stock – single leaf doors – which seemed like a good idea during the years of declining patronage in the early eighties, but are a liability following the Livingstonian era’s introduction of Zonal fares, Travelcards and Oyster.

In order to make LR a pleasant place for discussion, please try to keep comments polite and, importantly, on topic! Comments that we feel do not meet these criteria, or that contain language that could cause some people trouble at work, may be moderated or deleted.

Recent Articles

It is easy to forget sometimes that for an “Underground” railway, Crossrail will spend a considerable amount of time on the surface. We have covered the North-Eastern arm of Crossrail on various occasions. The most recent of these was to…

Back in November last year we covered TfL’s plans to launch the first Crossrail services under a TfL Rail brand. As we explained at the time, the idea of launching the first MTR-run Crossrail services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield…

Camden Council recently approved a scheme to revamp Tottenham Court Road. The scheme is quite significant in its own right but the thinking behind it also says a lot about current ideas on how best to use limited highway space…

Delays and work overruns aren’t an uncommon part of the Christmas experience on London’s railways. Ultimately, maintenance and improvement needs to be carried out and from a utilitarian perspective the opportunity to do so in a period where passenger numbers…

Operationally the Northern Line is probably the most interesting tube line. As the line’s signal upgrade programme comes to an official end, we look at the recent Northern Line timetable improvements and how frequency seems to be slowly but steadily…

Happy New Year! It’s time for the answers! As always thanks to everyone who entered the Christmas Quiz. We hope you enjoyed attempting to beat it as much as we enjoyed writing it. Before getting to the answers below, however,…